Shocking Customer Service Facts That Will Let You Rethink Your Customer Service Strategies

Your customer service agents stand as the face and voice of your brand and they are as vital to ensuring client retention as your sales team. When your products fail to perform as per your expectations, your customer service team becomes your defence wing to detect and rectify customer issues. If you have not made customer service your top priority, you may need to think twice with stats revealing shocking customer service facts. According to the results of a survey conducted by Forrester, 42 percent of customer service executives are not able to effectively address customer issues on account of multiple applications, archaic user interfaces, and disconnected systems. This may make you rethink and redesign your employee communication strategies and technologies so as to bring your customer service teams and clients on a single platform of understanding. You may feel motivated to re-invest in your customer service processes with a Defaqto research claiming that 55 percent of customers are ready to pay more for a richer customer experience.

Did you know that attracting a new customer will cost you 6-7 times more than what you will normally incur to retain an existing client? A survey conducted by the White House Office of Consumer Affairs claims this fact. This gives you another strong reason to invest in hiring quality personnel who have a customer-centric mind-set and are ready to cross that extra mile when a situation arises. Further complementing this fact through a related perspective, a RightNow Customer Experience Impact study reveals that 89 percent of consumers have stopped using a company’s service after they experienced low levels of customer service. Losing customers to your competitor is the last thing that you will want to be affected with. A Bain & Co. survey reveals that a customer is 4 times more likely to buy from a company’s competitor if he/ she experiences service-related issues.

Making your customers feel valued is the cornerstone for building a long-lasting relationship and this is further supported by a McKinsey survey which claims that 70 percent of buying experiences are shaped by how customers perceive they are being treated. According to an eConsultancy study, 61 percent customers prefer support over phone, 60 percent prefer communication through email, 57 percent prefer interactions through Live Chat, and 51 percent prefer to use the online knowledge base. So the next time you think of introducing a new customer communication strategy, keep the above stats in your mind.

To sum up, customer retention can help you strengthen your brand and stay ahead of the competition. We see this happening in reality with a Bain & Co. survey claiming that a 10 percent increase in customer retention levels leads to a 30 percent increase in the company’s value.

Author: Jason Brickwork

Jason has 25+ years of Executive management experience in the answering service field and has helped doctors, lawyers, contractors, and small business owners avoid missed calls. He teaches business owners how to save on call center solutions by comparing prices and features the the best providers.